Hi. Welcome to Epiblast! The name is partly inspired by PZ Myers famous blog, Pharyngula partly by the fact that the epiblast, a simple tissue in a developing embryo (labelled 5), gives rise, eventually, to virtually everything inside our body. It's a metaphor for how some of our simple, fundamental ideas vastly affect the other aspects of our life. This blog covers my interests; usually science, medicine, atheism, religion. I might sneak in a bit of philosophy or magic if I feel like it. I warn you, the discussion gets uncomfortable and I come to conclusions which are unconventional, maybe contradictory to yours. Don't go crying to someone if you are offended.

Heya.

Long time no post. So I decided to get active. For some reason, Hindus tend to be quite subservient. We would rather swallow poison than resist. I donot know why. I tend to think it is due to the fact that "ahimsa" (apparently non-violence) is misinterpreted to mean avoiding any sort of conflict whatsoever. That is debatable in itself but I wish to address a more crucial issue of intellectual sloth. With all these aplogetics websites with eye-catching titles like "Hinduism Exposed", how come noone answers them? Apologetics is not a major issue in Hinduism since we keep to ourselves and are more concerned with revival than evangelism. Every hindu preacher is mildly apologetic but does not give it serious thought. In Hinduism, we have this concept of overcoming the lower level (of whatever) by trying to get to a slightly higer level. Then evolve slowly. Though this intellectual discussion or debate ultimately is not a spiritual issue, I believe it is important in training our intellect to think and a toned intellect is helpful in any field. So I wish to start my "course" so to say on defensive apologetics. To not try and prove other religions wrong but to exercise flex our intellectual muscle and to give hope to Hindus who may be losing faith. So here is the first article. It raises (superficially) so many issues that it is an epitome of Apologetics Articles. Kudos to Robert Morey. You are my yang (Yin-Yang, the Taoist symbol)

Hinduism Exposed

by Dr. Robert A. Morey

Introduction

Hinduism is one of the oldest pre-Christian pagan religions still viable in the world today. While we think of it as the faith of Mother India, it actually traces it origins to a mysterious tribe of Europeans called the Aryans who invaded and conquered Northern India from 1500 BC to 500 BC. The light-skinned Brahmins of Northern India claim to be their physical and spiritual descendants.

The Aryans

The Aryans brought with them their sacred writings called the Vedas. They were originally fire worshippers and this is why they believed in cremation instead of burying their dead. They also invented the theory of soul-transmigration in which at death you do not go to heaven or to hell but you are reborn into another body on earth. This next body could be animal, vegetable or human depending on whether you were good or bad. Your past behavior catches up with you in your present life due to the law of karma.

You could in your next reincarnation end up a clam, a carrot, a bush or a human being. The highest rebirth you could wish for was to be born as one of the white-skinned Brahmins who by virtue of their color were considered the "higher" class.

The Ugly Reality of Racism

The inherent racism of historic Hinduism is thus blatant. You were judged by the color of your skin, not the content of your character, skills or talents. The darker your skin, the lower your caste and rank in Hindu society. The whiter your skin, the higher your caste and rank. The Brahmins prided themselves on their white skin while despising the darker skinned untouchables who were often viewed and treated as sub-humans.

This explains why Hindu gurus are more than willing to travel to the West to convert rich white Europeans to Hinduism BUT never travel to black Africa to make converts. The truth is, they don't want black people whose skin color is an indication of bad karma. As long as they can sucker rich white people into giving them money ("Money is evil. So give it all to me.") why bother with darker skinned people?

This can be documented by the statements of many of the gurus who have reaped riches in the West. When one guru was asked on TV what he was doing to help the poor, he responded, "Let the Christians take care of them. I am here to help the rich."

The Caste System

The terrible caste system was invented in order to protect the white Brahmins from polluting their sacred whiteness with black blood. You had to marry and to labor in the caste into which you were born. The lines were clearly drawn and on one was allowed to move from one caste to another by marriage or trade.

The mechanism of the caste system is tied to the Hindu theory of soul-transmigration in which your rebirth determines your caste. Your rebirth was predetermined by your karma. Your karma was in turn was determined by how you lived in your past life. For example, if you were born with a dark skin to untouchable parents, your life of misery and poverty is your punishment for being evil in your previous life. In other words, you are getting what you deserved.

The poor, the sick, the disabled, the dark-skinned, etc. are what they are because of their own fault. The deserve their suffering because they did something bad in a previous life and their karma has caught up with them. We should not interfere with their suffering because if we do, we will doom them to experience it in the next life. Thus the kindest thing to do is to let them alone so they get their suffering over and hopefully have a better rebirth the next time around.

On the other hand, if you were born with white skin to Brahmin parents, your life of wealth and pleasure is your reward for good deeds done in your previous life. You deserve to be rich and white. You earned it. Thus you have no moral obligation to help those less fortunate them you.

The social inequities of Hinduism ultimately led millions of lower caste Indians to abandon Hinduism for Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism or Christianity because those religions did not lock them into a rigid caste system. Social and financial mobility required a change of religion. Of course, if you were a rich white Brahmin, why would you convert to a religion which would strip you of your social status and wealth?

Social Evils

Being originally fire worshippers, Hinduism developed the grisly practice of burning a widow alive on the funeral pyre of her husband (suttee). If she did not willing jump into the fire, she was often thrown into it by the mob gathered to watch her burn to death.

Child sacrifices to animal gods such as sacred crocodiles were common until this Hindu practice was criminalized by the British. The ritual murder and burial of travelers by the Kali cult (the thugees) is another example of Hinduism's inherently demonic nature and inspiration.

Other immoral practices of Hinduism included using children as sex slaves in Hindu temples. They not only served the sexual perversions of the priests and gurus but were used as prostitutes to bring in money. The poorest of the poor who often could not afford to keep a new child, left the baby in a temple assuming that the child would have a better life with the priests than with its parents. They doomed their child to a life of pain and misery.

The tourist who travels to India's many temples is often shocked by wall art that depicts sodomy, child sex, orgies and bestiality of the grossest kind. Yet, all this is part of what lies at the core of Hinduism.

The same shock is received when tourists see Hindus drinking urine from animals and humans and smearing dung in their hair and on their body. The smell that emanates from the gurus, monks and holy men of Hinduism is enough to warn us that Hinduism is rotten to the core. .

Why are we beginning our discussion of Hinduism with such ugly topics as racism, the caste system, burning of widows, ritual child abuse and gross immorality? To see the true nature of Hinduism we must study what it produces in those societies where it is the dominant religion. Thus a mere abstract philosophic presentation of Hinduism in the classroom will give a false view of it. Hinduism is far more than a list of abstract dogmas. It is actually a social program that seeks to organize a culture according to Hindu concepts of soul-transmigration, karma, race and caste.

The Philosophic Failures of Hinduism

1. Hinduism denies the existence of the infinite/personal triune God of the Bible who exists independent of and apart from the universe which He created out of nothing. It is atheistic in this sense.

2. Hinduism never solved the problem of the One and Many or the infinite/personal dichotomy.

3. Those Hindus who emphasize the One over the Many, teach Monism (All is One) and pantheism (All is God), erasing any distinction between Creator and creation. "God" is an impersonal infinite force or power which manifest itself as the universe around us. The "things" we see around us do not really exist per se. They are only illusions of the One. This is what the high caste Hindus teach the Westerners who come to India in search of "enlightenment."

4. The vast majority of Hindus do not follow the Brahmin doctrine of monism. Instead of emphasizing the One over the Many, they emphasize the Many over the One and practice the most vile forms of polytheism imaginable in which they worship millions of gods and goddesses. It is said that the Hindus worship more gods and goddesses than the total number of Hindus who exist today. They worship snakes, monkeys, elephants, crocodiles, cats, insects and other absurdities.

5. As a world view, Hinduism fails to answer crucial questions:

a. Why does the Universe exist as opposed to not existing? Since it cannot answer this question, Hinduism simply denies the existence of the world around us. It is an illusion (maya) or dream.

b. Is the universe eternal or did it have a beginning? Hinduism has always taught that the universe is eternal. But this has been successfully refuted by modern science. This also exposes an inherent contradiction within Hinduism. If the universe does not exist but is illusionary in nature, how then is it eternal? How can Hinduism speak of the universe going through eternal cycles if the universe does not exist?

c. Why does the Universe exist in such a form that predictability and science are possible? By denying the existence of the world around it, Hinduism did not develop science and cannot exist why it works.

d. What is evil? Once again, since Hinduism could not answer this question, it simply denied that evil existed.

e. Why does evil exist? Hinduism cannot answer this question.

f. What is man? Hinduism denies that we actually exist.

g. How can we explain the uniqueness of man? Hinduism cannot explain why man is distinct from the world around him.

h. Why do we do evil? Hinduism cannot answer this question.

i. What is sin? Because it does not have a concept of a personal/infinite Creator, Hinduism has no concept of "sin" per se.

j. How do we obtain forgiveness for our sins? There is no forgiveness in Hinduism. You will have to suffer in the next life for the evil you do in this present life. This answer exposes an inescapable contradiction within Hindu philosophy. If the universe, evil, and man do not actually exist but are only illusions (Maya), then on what grounds does karma exist? If it does not actually exist either, then on what grounds does reincarnation happen?

k. On what basis can we explain man's desire for meaning, significance, justice, morals, truth and beauty? Hinduism has no answer to these questions.

l. How can we provide a sufficient basis for meaning, significance, justice, morals, truth and beauty? Hinduism cannot provide a philosophic basis for any of these things.

Conclusion

Hinduism cannot answer the essential philosophic questions that always arise wherever and whenever the human intellect matures. It has been weighed in the scales of truth and have been found lacking.

Even more importantly, Hinduism has no concept of a Creator God, the Creation, the Fall of man into sin and guilt, a Day of Judgment, atonement or forgiveness, or a Savior who redeems us from our sins by the sacrifice of Himself in our place.

It did not produce democracy, science or equality among different races and racks of mankind. Instead it produced great social evils which afflict the Indian people to this day. As a religion and a philosophy, Hinduism is a complete failure and cannot provide a basis for meaning, significance, justice, morals, truth and beauty.